What are Friends for?
by wishbone23
Summary: Two teenage riolus trespass onto ghost territory, the punishment for which is death. Luckily for them there is a way out of the punishment, but only for one of them. Who will live and who will die? The choice is theirs.
1. Trespassing

"Come one Sian, stop being so afraid." Ian said.

"Sorry to say this, but we shouldn't be here. This is ghost territory." Sian responded.

"They won't know anything, we'll be in and out before they even wake up."

"Um, Ian, please tell me your plan is thought out better than that."

"What do you mean?"

"Ghosts don't s-sleep at night. N-nighttime is when they roam around."

"Don't worry about it. We just need one pecha berry and then we'll be out of here." The area the teenagers were in was known for its large quantity of pecha berries. Ian walked around, inspecting every tree for the pecha berry that would help his sister. Sian, who was visibly trembling, followed him. The teens were friends, best friends. Ian was a male riolu, as was his friend Sian. Both of them were knowingly trespassing on the ghosts' territory to get a pecha berry for Ian's sister.

"Are you sure we're in the right area? I don't see a pecha berry anywhere." Sian said.

"Don't worry about it." Ian said. He walked over to a tree and plucked a pecha berry from it. "See, there we go."

"T-the sky looks rather eerie tonight. Look there's no sun, or moon, and the stars are all gone."

"The stars being gone is an optical illusion caused by the ghosts' territory. Once we're out of here the sky will be back to normal."

"Oh, that's nice."

"I can't wait to see Gera all healthy and stuff again."

"Didn't she get poisoned a week ago?"

"Yeah, and no one could find the pecha berry needed to cure her. Think about it, I'll be a hero. I'll come triumphantly back into town and heal my sister. And the trespassing will be our little secret."

"I-if it's not too much trouble can you give me a bit of the credit too? Maybe you could say that I helped you find it, if you want to of course."

"Sure, I'll say that you were my sidekick."

"T-thank you so much."

"Why are you stuttering so much?"

"W-were in ghost territory, I-I'm so scared."

"Come on. You'll never find a girlfriend if you keep being such a scaredy meowth." That hit Sian hard. A tear rolled down his cheek and fell quickly to the ground. Ian quickly took note of how much he had hurt his friend. "I'm kidding, I'm sure there's a girl who likes shy boys out there somewhere."

"No, you were right the first time. Don't worry about it, I've already given up on finding a girlfriend." This shocked Ian.

"Why are you giving up? Come on, you're the one who reads all of those romance novels I steal from the humans. How can you give up on love when you've read about it so many times?"

"Those are fiction. And even if they weren't the characters in the stories aren't afraid to take risks. Look at me, taking risks is the last thing I'd do."

"Hey, there's a girl out there for you somewhere, and you'll know what love feels like when you find her."

"But how come I haven't found a girl yet. Look at you, you've already had seven girlfriends, whereas I haven't been asked out once."

"I'm different. I'm the perfect guy, but even though you aren't, you're still pretty cool, otherwise I wouldn't let you be my friend."

"R-really, you think I'm cool?"

"Of course, so what do you say? Shall we finally get the heck out of ghost territory?"

"Yeah." The two teenagers ran as quickly as they could back towards the edge of ghost territory. Sian saw a shape in front of him and tried to stop running, but it was too late. He slammed into the shape and crashed onto the ground. When Ian saw that Sian had fallen he quickly ran over to him. Sian looked at the shape he had just crashed into and found that it was Misa, the mismagius princess of the ghost territory. Misa screamed when she saw Sian.

"Trespasser!" Misa yelled after she finished screaming. Sian bent down on one knee and bowed his head when his mind registered who it was that he had just crashed into. Ian, however tried to run away. He may have gotten away if it was not for the purple energy that suddenly surrounded him and dragged him back to where Sian was bowing. "Have you no shame? Trespassing and trying to run away when caught? I thought riolus where supposed to be honorable Pokemon. Look at your friend here. He may have trespassed as well, but he didn't run away when caught and he's bowing like you should when you meet royalty." She said to Ian.

"Sorry." Ian said insincerely.

"Do you know what the punishment for trespassing is?" Misa asked intimidatingly.

"Death." Sian muttered.

"You knew that you would die and yet you didn't run away? That is honorable indeed. What is your name?" Misa asked Sian.

"M-my name is S-Sian and my f-f-friend's name is I-Ian." Sian said. He was stuttering a lot more than earlier.

"Well then, if you'll please follow me. I would use psychic to carry you as well, but that can be painful, especially for fighting types such as you, and I think that you deserve to be treated with more respect than your friend here."

"T-thank you Princess." Sian said. And so Sian followed the princess, and Ian's floating body to an old looking cathedral. Once inside the princess lead Sian to the cells in the basement of the cathedral and locked both Sian and Ian inside of it. Once Ian was in the cell the purple energy surrounding him disappeared.

"Listen, I have some matters to attend to. Be nice boys and wait in this cell until I come back, not that you have much of a choice." The princess teased. After she floated away Ian began speaking to Sian.

"Where's the pecha berry?" Ian asked while searching the cell for it frantically.

"You must have dropped it when the princess used psychic on you." Sian said.

"We really got ourselves into a jam this time, eh?" Ian said.

"Yeah. B-before we die I want you to know that you mean a lot to me. You're the only Pokemon who ever cared enough about me to spend time with me voluntarily." Sian said.

"I'm really the only one?"

"Yeah, without you I'd still be friendless and alone in the world. Since we're going to die I want you to know how much you mean to me. Thank you."


	2. Good news

"Hey, did you notice how shiny Misa's eyes are?" Sian asked.

"No, I was too busy floating and being in pain." Ian said.

"Oh, yeah. How badly did it hurt?" Sian asked.

"It wasn't pleasant, but she was certainly holding back. It was like walking through a patch of pricker bushes."

"That's not too bad."

"No, it wasn't really, and it was kinda cool to float. I still would have preferred to walk though."

"Sorry. I should have been ruder, like you, then we would be in the exact same situation, like friends should be."

"Nah, that's fine. Your obsession with honor got the best of you, it's understandable. Just remember that I am perfect and thus you should learn from me. If both of us ran maybe only one of us wouldn't be in this situation."

"I'm sorry. I need to follow your example of perfection better." Sian hung his head. Ian put his hand on Sian's shoulder.

"Hey, you aren't perfect like me, so don't beat yourself up about it." Ian said.

"Thank you."

"No problem, that's what a perfect Pokemon like me does. So why do you think Misa was alone? I mean, she screamed for Mew's sake, wouldn't some sort of bodyguard or something come?"

"A-according to my information about the princess and this territory there's a festival tonight, and she usually gives her bodyguards the night off. She then goes somewhere to be alone. So that would explain why she's alone, and the festival is on the other side of the territory, which would explain why no one heard her scream. A-apparently everyone but the princess went to the festival last year, and I suspect that this year was the same."

"Thanks. You're like a walking talking textbook of random information. But that info seems more in depth than most of your normal info, why do you know so much about the festival and the princess?"

"I-I studied the ghost territory heavily when you told me that we were going there." Sian couldn't make eye contact with Ian, which was a sign that he was lying. Ian had never noticed that, so Sian could get away with lying easily, but he hardly ever lied.

"You must have studied a lot considering that you only had five hours to prepare."

"Y-yes."

"Good job." Ian took his hand off of Sian's shoulder. "You should have spent some of that time learning to fight." Ian punched some imaginary Pokemon in the air while dodging their imaginary fists. Ian jumped and punched quickly, like a riolu that was trained by a lucario would, despite the fact that Ian hadn't been trained by anyone but himself.

"I-I'm sorry sir. I should have spent more time learning to fight."

"Yes, you should have. But that's useless now. Now you should spend your time making confessions and trying to tie up any lose ends."

"That's great advice sir. But I'm afraid I have nothing to confess." Sian couldn't look at Ian while talking.

"I've got one. You know that really hot chikorita chick?"

"Yeah."

"She was my first kiss."

"I thought you said the sneasel was your first kiss."

"I kinda lied. You see, she was too stupid to know that kissing me would have been something that'd she'd have enjoyed so I broke up with her."

"Wow, what a moron. I she didn't know how to appreciate a being as awesome as you correctly."

"Exactly, so I broke up with her."

"Good idea."

"I know. Any girl too stupid to appreciate my perfection doesn't deserve a kiss anyways."

"Very true sir. She was not a good enough girlfriend for you."

"But she was hot."

"Y-yes she was."

"You know it's nighttime now. Are you tired?"

"You needn't worry about me sir."

"No, if you're tired you should sleep. We have a big event coming up soon."

"Public execution. One of the worst ways for some to die. But at least all of the ghosts will be able to bask in your glory before you die."

"Yes, it will be the best moment of their lives. Weather they know it or not."

"Most certainly."

"So do you have any regrets?"

"Never getting a girlfriend comes to mind."

"Hey, maybe one of the other prisoners will go out with you."

"There are no other prisoners. All prisoners that aren't sentenced to death are let free the day of the festival, and all prisoners who are sentenced to death are killed the day before the festival."

"Dang I was hoping that there was a girl here who was put in prison for being too dang hot." Sian smiled, which was a rare thing for him to do.

"You know, some girls are prisoners here, and are hot, but aren't in jail."

"You mean like slaves?"

"And some are prisoners of their own responsibilities and reputations."

"Can I have an example brain boy?"

"The princess is a prisoner to her own position of power. Tonight is one of the few times when she isn't doing her princess responsibilities. And the princess is pretty hot."

"You're still sucking up to the princess even when she isn't here?"

"Sir please stop teasing me, i-if you want to of course. You know that I'm just being respectful." Ian put his hand on Sian's shoulder again.

"I know. And your respect for authority figures is stupid. We're going to die anyways, why not die the way you want to?" Ian took his hand off of Sian's shoulder.

"No, I'm going to stay the same, even in the face of death." Sian said flatly. It was very unusual for him to say something so flatly to Ian.

"I think it's time to go to sleep." Ian said. And so the boys walked to opposite sides of the cell and began to sleep.

They woke up to a loud voice seven hours later.

"Hey prisoners, I have some good news for you." Misa yelled at them, causing them to wake up.

"What's the good news?" Ian asked while walking towards the bars,which Misa was floating on the other side of.

"Apparently, by law there's a way around the death penalty for trespassing. Actually your pretty lucky, there's an extremely specific law that was made by a queen a long time ago so that her daughter could marry someone with the death penalty. You see, according to the law if a group of two trespassers comes in on the night of the festival and they are caught by the princess, one of them will marry the princess, and the other will be executed as they would normally. This law was used so that princess Monica could marry a prisoner she fell in love with hundreds of years ago. This is the second time the law has ever taken effect." Mesa explained to the two boys.

"So one of us is going to marry you and the other one is going to die?" Ian asked.

"Yes, you have two days to choose who lives and who dies, also by law you both be spending two hours with me every day. I'll be back later to do that. Have fun choosing who dies." She winked at the two boys. "And choose carefully, this choice will cost one of you your life." Misa then floated away, leaving the two confused boys to discuss who was going to die. She expected them to fight over her, the idea of that brought Misa joy.


	3. Talking

"Well, congratulations. It looks like you're getting married soon." Sian said to Ian.

"Wow. How can you make that decision so quickly?" Ian asked. Sian shrugged.

"You're the one with a social life, and you're the superior being, so it just makes scene. The princess is pretty a lucky girl."

"Thanks. So now that you're going to be the only one dying, the next few days are going to be spent fulfilling your last wishes."

"But my only last wish is..."

"That's right. We're getting you a girlfriend."

"Ian, there still isn't any other prisoners."

"Wasn't it you who said that there are some prisoners here who aren't in jail, or something to that effect?"

"I-it was me. What are you saying?"

"There are some female jail guards here that are around our age here. I'm sure we could find one that wouldn't mind dating you for a few minutes."

"H-how do you know that?"

"I kinda listened to you when you were ranting about the ghost territory jails yesterday."

"Thank you, but, you see-"

"No need to thank me, now let's find you a chick."

"I really don't think that-"

"Hey! Can a good looking teenage jail guard come over here?" Sian yelled. After a few second of waiting a teenage female haunter floated the outside side of the jail bars.

"What is it?" She asked.

"My friend is going to die soon and his biggest regret is that he never had a girlfriend, can you be his girlfriend for a few minutes?" Ian asked her.

"Ian, as much as appreciate the gesture, there's a specific girl I have my eye on right now. If it's not her it doesn't mean anything." Sian said. Ian ran over to him and bounced up and down with excitement.

"You finally have a crush. Who is it?" Ian asked.

"Well I'm glad that you don't want to date me, because I would have said no anyways the haunter said before floating away.

"Your loss!" Ian yelled after her. Sian looked at him and they both laughed. "I'm really happy for you. They grow up so fast." Ian said while wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. Causing both of the boys to laugh again. After that boys joked around for a few hours until the princess returned.

"Hey boys. So how's the deciding going?" Misa asked them. Both boys, who were sitting near the bars, looked up at her. Ian stood up and Sian followed his example.

"Really hard, I think that it'll be a really tough choice." Ian said. He discreetly winked at Sian as if to say, 'just go along with it'.

"Have you two to physically fought over it yet?" Misa asked.

"No, we're riolus we'll settle this without violence." Ian said.

"I-If you don't mind me asking princess, I heard that the king is ill. Is that true?"

"Yes, it's really hard to take care of him. There's supposed to be a way to cure his disease, but none of our records say how."

"Take two oran berries, one pecha berry and one sitrus berry. Use them to make a drink and have the king drink it. That should cure his aliment." Sian said.

"Oh yeah. I read about that when I was a child! I guess the book must have been burned or stolen or something. That you so much!" Misa said excitedly. "But, how did you come across that information?"

"I don't actually know. I have read many books created by humans, so I assume that one of them had the cure written in it." Sian said.

"Amazing. How can I ever repay you?" Misa said.

"You could let both live." Ian suggested.

"Not a chance." Misa said.

"I-if it's not too much trouble, there's a young girl who lives to the west of here and she's poisoned. All she needs is a pehca berry, but the only ones around here are in your territory." Sian said.

"That sounds more reasonable. Where does she live?"

"She lives on the delta cliff. I trust you know where that is?"

"Of course. I'll have one of my aids bring her the berry tonight."

"Thank you princess. I hope that your father feels well soon."

"He will, thanks to you." Misa said. "I don't really understand you. You're nice, you're smart, you're honorable (at this point Sian blushed) and yet you hang out with over here and you trespassed onto ghost territory."

"Ian doesn't have an ego." Sian said flatly.

"Wow, that killed the mood. I'm sorry I bought it up."

"I-it's okay."

"So what should we talk about now? We still have the better part of two hours left." Ian pointed out.

"What are your favorite colors?" Misa asked the boys.

"Blue." Ian said.

"Blue as well. And if my information is correct your favorite color is purple, correct?" Sian said. Misa looked shocked that he knew her favorite color.

"How do you know that?" She asked Sian.

"One must absorb all facts possible, I don't know where I learned it, but I do know that the fact is true." Sian said.

"Amazing, what else do you know about me?" Misa asked.

"A ton of random things. Your favorite food is oran berries, you favorite activity is thinking, and your favorite height to float at is two inches above the ground, just to name a few."

"A-amazing. Do you know that much about all royalty?"

"Not really. For some reason a lot of information about you travels around, so I know a lot about you." Sian couldn't look her in the eye while speaking. Sian smiled at her after he was finished speaking and Misa laughed. Misa was flattered that Sian knew so much about it. She didn't admit it at the time, but she knew that she would rather have Sian marry her than Ian. She wished it was her decision, but alas, it was the boy's decision to make. For the rest of the two hours Sian and Misa talked, and Ian spoke every now and again.


	4. Poetry!

After Misa left the boys began talking to each other.

"You know, her eyes seemed even shinier today." Sian pointed out.

"So what?" Ian said.

"You know, you seem like you're in a bad mood."

"I don't want to marry that thing."

"Think about it this way, in the future you'll be a king."

"Like I should be."

"You know, I've been thinking about it, and I do have another regret."

"What is it?"

"I never told you that I'm a poet." Ian laughed.

"A poet? That's so lame." Sian's face dropped.

"Please listen to one of my poems before making judgments."

"Fine, but just one."

"Great. This poem is called, the love that was to never be.

Forgive me for seeming like such a downer,

or a pessimist,

I love her,

but it was never meant to be.

It's not that I don't love her,

or that my love isn't strong enough,

trust me,

my love for her is as wide as the universe,

which is infinitely wide,

but it's just a fact that out love will never be.

She's in a whole other world.

I should have seen this coming,

I mean, what in my life has ever gone the way I wanted it to?

But I kinda tricked myself into believing that we could be together,

only for a moment or two.

Yes, that illusion faded long ago,

and left me with daydreams and fantasies,

after all,

what would a girl like her,

see in a guy like me?" Ian looked at his friend in shock when he finished his poem.

"That wasn't half bad. How long have you been working on that?" Ian asked.

"I made it up on the spot."

"Really? That's pretty impressive. Of course, I can do better."

"Cool. Can I hear your poem?"

"Of course, mine is completely made up on the spot as well. It's called shiny eyes.

Your shiny eyes,

the eyes I feel in love with,

the eyes that I know.

I don't know them to cry,

yet here they are,

on my shoulder,

pouring out water,

like the skies pour rain.

Your shiny eyes,

the eyes that touched my heart,

that soared down from the heavens to meet me.

I don't know them to bleed,

yet here they are

bleeding, like they cried tears,

which would pour out of your eyes like rain." Sian looked at his friend in awe. Ian was actually just quoting a book that he had read, but he wasn't going to tell Sian that.

"That was great, as expected from the superior being." He said excitedly.

"Naturally. I just can't be beat."

"Of course not, who could beat the superior being? No one, that's why you're called the superior being, not the inferior being."

"You know, the princess' story made it sound like she was going to choose one of us instead of one of us choosing her over death."

"Misa looked pretty tired, probably with the preparations for the wedding, so she probably wasn't thinking well enough to tell the story correctly."

"So how about you tell it then?"

"I'd be glad to. You see two guys got caught trespassing, like us, on the night of the festival, like us, and were thrown in jail, like we were. The princess ended up falling in love with one of the prisoners. The queen found out about her love for the prisoner and talked to the prisoner the princess had fallen in love with and his companion. Because the princess was a stickler for the rules, she wouldn't break them to marry her love, and they all knew that. So they all collectively agreed on a law that would force the princess to marry one of them, and because the princess was such a stickler for the rules they made it the prisoner's responsibility to choose which one would marry her. On the scheduled day of the execution the law was revealed to the princess and she was married to her love. Unfortunately for her love's companion, the law only saved one of them, and so he was still executed. The story is still commonly told today, as an example of sacrificing for friends."

"So that law is the reason I'm getting married to the princess huh? That's better than death, especially because I get to become a king eventually. Finally I'll be in a position of authority where I can show off how awesome I am."

"Yes indeed sir. Your future subjects are very lucky."

"Excuse me prisoners. I hope you don't mind me interrupting your stupid conversation,but I have food for you." An intimidating looking male gengar said to the boys. He threw two apples at both of them. Both boys caught their apples and looked at the gengar, who quickly floated away. Both boys hungrily devoured their apples at an amazing speed.

"I completely forgot all about how hungry I was." Sian said.

"How could you forget about being hungry?" Ian asked.

"Well being on death row kinda was a more important thing to think about, at least to me."

"True. You know, if you're going to die, you need something to think about before you die, something that'll make you smile, that way you'll be going out with a smile."

"I'll think about our friendship."

"No, you need something more specific than that."

"Like what?"

"Think about how hot that sneasel chick was."

"Actually, I have something even better. Thanks for the advice, when I die I'll die with a smile."

"Wonderful. I hope that's true. So how do they kill you anyways?"

"They chopped the last guy's head off with an axe, but that was over a hundred years ago."

"The last time someone had the death sentence was over a hundred years ago?"

"Well, no, but the way you die for almost every crime is different. The punishment for murder, for example, is crucifixion."

"Crucifixion?"

"They nail your hands and feet to a wooden cross, it's the most painful ways to kill someone." After a little while more of talking the boys went to sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Just for the record, I completely made these poems up on the spot while writing. <strong>


	5. The sort of calm before the storm

When Ian woke up he looked at Sian, who was mumbling something inaudible to Ian's ears. Ian wondered what his friend was mumbling about, how long he had been awake, and why he was mumbling.

"What are you mumbling about?" Ian asked Sian.

"Oh, it's nothing," Sian said. Ian decided to just drop the topic.

"So today's the last full day that you'll be alive."

"You don't need to remind me."

"So what's something that you want to do before you die?"

"Didn't we go over this yesterday?"

"Come on, there's got to be something else."

"No, I just want to die already." Ian looked at his friend in shock.

"You want to die?"

"There's no purpose in my life anymore. Just let the axe kill me already."

"Why are you acting like this?"

"I've got no reason to live. Tomorrow should be interesting."

"Of course you've got a reason to live."

"And what would that be Ian? My whole family's dead, and I'm never really going to get a girlfriend!" Ian was once again shocked. Sian had never yelled at him, not once. Ian couldn't understand what would cause him to be in such a bad mood.

"What about friendship? I'm your friend."

"Y-yeah, your right, sorry about that."

"You know, there's something I want to do before you die. We need to fight."

"What? Why?"

"I need to see how tough you are before you die." Both of the boys stood up. Ian quickly slammed his fist into Sian's face, causing Sian to fall. Sian stood up, only to be knocked down by another punch from Ian.

"Fight back!" Ian yelled. Sian got up again, but this time Ian grabbed him by the shoulders and pinned him against the side of the cell. A scream was heard by the two boys, and a purple energy surrounded Ian. The energy forced him to let go of Sian and slammed him against the wall. Sian fell down to the floor and started breathing heavily.

"Are you alright?" Misa, who was on the other side of the bars, asked Sian.

"I-I'm fine," Sian said. He was on his hands and knees and still seemed like he was trying to catch his breath.

"What the heck were you thinking?" Misa yelled at Ian.

"I wanted to see how strong Sian was before he died," Ian explained. The purple energy that was surrounding him disappeared and he fell to the ground.

"Sian's going to be the one dying? I guess I should have seen that coming. See you guys tomorrow," Misa said.

"Wait, what about the two hours each day you have to spend with us?" Ian asked.

"No one said that you had to know I was here," Misa explained.

"So you watched us for two hours without telling us?" Ian asked.

"It's better than having to deal with you." Misa then floated away.

"What a loser. So let's continue our fight," Ian said to Sian after Misa was out of sight.

"No. That would be a fruitless endeavor," Sian said.

"You know what I said about big words," Ian said.

"They're only for showoffs. I meant to say that there would be no point in continuing our fight."

"Why not?"

"The rest of the fight would follow a predictable path. You would punch me, I would fall, I would get back up and then the cycle would start all over again."

"It wouldn't if you punched me back."

"I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"My arms wouldn't respond if I tell them to punch you."

"Have you tried telling them to, or are you just assuming that?"

"I know for a fact that they wouldn't do it, but I've never tried."

"What makes you think they won't?"

"Did you ever wonder why I was never trained by a lucario? It's not because they hate me like they hate you. You see, I don't fight, I'm a pacifist."

"I never knew that."

"There's a lot of things you'll never know about me."

"That sounded like a pretty depressing comment."

"Sorry about that."

"Just remember to think happy thoughts."

"Yeah, everyone I hate is going to die someday. I hope those deaths are painful." Sian rubbed his hands together while imagining some painful deaths.

"Yeah. Think about life like that. There's always a positive side to think on. Plus, I'm going to be king someday, that's something that should bring you mountains of joy."

"Yes, that is a happy thought indeed."

"I will rule this territory and everyone will bow down to me. You know, I think I'll have a statue made in your honor."

"Thank you."

"That's what friends do." Sian laughed.

"Yes, friends dedicate statues to each other after they die."

"And your statue will be marvelous. It will be a life sized state of you constructed solely out of marble. I'll look at it every day and remember your sacrifice."

"Thank you. That means a lot to me."

"No problem."

"Are you ready to see me killed tomorrow?"

"I don't think I'll ever be ready."

"Neither will I be, but we can't stop tomorrow from coming."

"I wish I could."

"So do I. But death is my destiny and you can't stop destiny."

"Yep, destiny's a mean mistress."

"At least you and your sister are going to live."

"Good. Keep thinking positively, that's the best way to spend your last full day alive."

"That is a very true statement."

"You know, when I'm king I'll spread the story of your sacrifice. Every child, mother, father, widow, teenager and everyone else will know about you." Ian spent the rest of the day ranting about what he would do when he was king, and Sian spent the rest of the day listening carefully. Eventually both decided that they should get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for both of them. Both of them mentally pictured the day that was ahead before finally falling asleep. Sian couldn't stop thinking about being executed, and no matter how hard Ian tried, all he could think about was his friend's execution. Both of them had a hard time falling asleep that night, but they eventually did.


	6. Execution

When the boys woke up they looked at each other. Sian seemed as if had a nervous breakdown, and Ian seemed like he had hardly slept at all. The boys look at each other carefully, both worried about the other.

"Ah, good, you two are awake," Misa said. She was on the other side of the cage. She opened the cage door. "Follow me." Sian and Ian got out of the cage and followed the princess down the hallway where the prisoners were held.

"Shouldn't you have some kind of way to make sure we don't escape?" Ian asked Misa while were walking down the hallway.

"The only one of you two who would have a reason to escape is too honorable to do so," Misa explained, causing Sian to blush. They kept following Misa threw the large cathedral until they reached a place that looked like a wooden stage. There were hundreds, if not thousands of ghost pokemon watching Sian, Ian and Misa like they were some kind of show. There was one more pokemon on the stage, a gengar, who was holding an axe that, if stood up, would be around double the height of Sian. The axe was also very sharp, and could easily kill Sian, for example, in one swing. The stage was lit up with spotlights, which were stolen from humans in a city nearby for this special event. All of the ghost pokemon stopped talking amongst themselves when they saw Sian, Ian and Misa come onto the stage. Everyone knew that there was going to be death, and they all couldn't wait. Every eye was on Sian and Ian. Which one was going to die? The crowd had no idea, and the anticipation was killing them. The gengar with the axe bowed when he saw Misa, and then quickly got back up.

"The name's Axe, so which one of you am I slicing through today?" The gengar said.

"M-me sir," Sian said.

"You poor little thing," Axe said sarcastically. "I'll try to make your death as quick and painless as I can." Axe licked his lips at the thought of slicing Sian in half. Sian bowed respectfully.

"That you sir," Sian said. Axe was shocked, no one had ever thanked him if they knew that he was soon going to kill them before. Ian laughed at Axe's shocked expression.

"Are you sure that you have to be the one to die? I think I want the one who laughed at me to die more," Axe said.

"I'm dying today sir, I'm sorry to disappoint you," Sian said. Axe couldn't wrap his head around the fact that the riolu who he was going to execute was being more respectful than the one who wasn't. Normally the ones who were going to die would be rude due to the sadness and stress that came from the knowledge that they were going to be executed. Sian defied everything Axe knew about execution. He was being respectful, kind, and he was even smiling. Most were rude, violent, and never smiled. The more Axe thought about it, the less he liked the idea of executing Sian.

"S-so do you have any last words to say?" Axe asked Sian.

"Thank you for being my friend Ian. It means a lot to me that you chose me when no one else would. You're awesome, I couldn't have asked for a better friend," Sian said to Ian.

"I couldn't have asked for a better friend either," Ian said.

"You could have asked for a way to clone yourself," Sian pointed out.

"I don't know, I think I enjoy spending time with you more than I would a clone of myself. Plus, the world couldn't handle the awesomeness of two mes," Ian said. A tear fell down Sian's cheek after Ian finished talking. "What's wrong?"

" Nothing's wrong, I-I'm just so happy to hear you say that. T-thank you," Sian said. He then turned to Axe. "I'm sorry for the holdup sir, I'm ready to die now."

"And you're sure that we can't just kill the other riolu?" Axe asked Misa.

"Unfortunately. It's their choice, so Sian's going to die.," Misa explained. Tears began to fall from Misa's eyes.

"Are you alright princess?" Axe asked her. She quickly tried to wipe up her tears, but to no avail, because they just kept falling.

"I'm fine, just get on with it," Misa said to Axe.

"If I could just get you to stand over here," Axe said to Sian, while gesturing to a spot on the stage where Sian wouldn't be so close to his friends. It was an execution tradition that whoever was going to be executed would have to be a safe distance away from the others on the stage. This was to prevent accidents where the executor would hit the wrong pokemon. Sian walked over to where he was directed, and all of a sudden the crowd started screaming with excitement. It was an execution tradition to let a pokemon have the choice if they were going to try and run away, thus there was nothing but Sian's honor binding him to where he stood. However, if he were to try and escape he would be tied to a chair, and then executed while tied to the chair. No one knew why that was a tradition, but it was. Sian stood at the spot he was instructed to, and Axe readied his axe. Axe swung the axe and Sian, and when it made contact a riolu fell to the ground, a bloody mess. The riolu was dead, and the crowd cheered loudly, they had finally gotten the death they had been waiting for.

But that riolu wasn't Sian.

Ian had jumped in front of the axe just in time to save his friend, knowingly sacrificing his own life to do so. And when Ian died, he was smiling.


End file.
